8. Computer controlled machining

In this week we will use the “CNC” Computer Numerical Control to cut a wood pieces and form a big object.

We have chosen these birds because we participated in a cultural event in bahrain to raise awarness about imgrant birds that passes by us.

Group Assignment

Group link

I recommend this video that shows the steps of tracing the pictures.

Steps:

I started searching the internet for some birds in bahrain I ended choosing northern-lapwing.

I choose a picture so I can trace the shape to get a good scale of the bird.

I added a beam to stick the bird parts together all the parts has to have the same hole location so I draw a square then duplicated it and grouped with the wing shape then I repeated the process multiple times for the other parts.

Finally I selected all the parts and set the stock size to 1 px.

Testing the desing before cutting:

I have used the laser cutter to cut my desing just to make sure that the joints can fit together.

Cutting:

We started by placing the sacrifising board.

Then we added our board.

After that we placed the bit.

Then we started the machine to set the origins “X,Y,Z”.

For XY axis we set it through the program.

However Z we need to place a plate then the machine will calibrate the Z origin.

Using vcarve pro software we entered the dimesions of the board we want to cut and the start posion corner.

Then we imported the file that we desined in inkskape and saved it as “PDF” and we entered the start and end depth of the sheet so if the sheet is 8mm you will have to set the depth to 8mm then edit the passes to the passes sutable to the one layer cut we set it to 2 passes because our 4mm bit can cut 4mm depth each pass.

After that we choose our bit in the and set the recommended speed and feed rate according to this table or this table

After that we would save the tool path and then click on cut in shopbot software and upload the toolpath to it.

Then press the start button.

problems

We tried a small scale of the bird first to make sure that the joints can join together and they didnt so I had to modify the design then recut it.